Mitt Romney
will win the election in November. He has grassroots support from the tea party and the selection of Paul Ryan has cemented it. Gov. Romney must now concentrate on independent and moderate voters and make the case that he is the better choice for America. In that, Mitt will not fail.
Mitt, being a moderate Republican who won in Democrat controlled Massachusetts, is well suited to the task of winning moderate votes. As a man with a business background, he is better equipped to run America than his opponent. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are a better team, and they have my support.
With that said, once elected they will have to win my support on a day by day basis. This is because the GOP establishment opposes the grassroots movement. This is true in
San Diego where volunteers have been replaced by donation-paid staff, soviet-style party rules and intimidation. It is true in the state of California where the party is a complete failure. This is true at the national level, as is now evidenced by Tuesday's assault on Ron Paul supporters, tea party supporters and other grassroots groups with the introduction of rules 15, 16 and 12 during the convention.
Fellow
SLOB,
Republican Mother's article over at
Left Coast Rebel, "
Rules Change = Dictatorship"outlines the story of rules 15, 16 and 12.
...if Mitt gets his way with this new rule change, he'll be the one selecting all the RNC delegates in 2016, meaning that the grassroots will be mowed down permanently. This has not only (Ron) Paulers upset, but your run of the mill Tea Party types like Dick Armey, Michelle Malkin and even Mark Levin.
Additional
Left Coast Rebel reporting continues:
Unfortunately, just because I haven't tuned in doesn't mean I'm not privy to the GOP establishment's delegate/grassroots shafting that just took place...
In short, rule 15 was renumbered rule 16 after being watered down. Rule 15 would have allowed the national party to veto state-elected delegates. It was effectively an establishment
purge of the grassroots.The grassroots would no longer be a factor in selecting candidates. It was compromised and rewritten as rule 16 due to backlash.
Rule 12 allows for rules to be written between conventions. This empowers a group of establishment elitists to mold the party without grassroots input. Further, it makes the compromise on rule 16 null and void because a new rule could be created between conventions with no knowledge or input from the state parties.
Speaker of the House John Boehner passed rule 12 "unanimously" over an equal number of "nays" as witnessed by the following
report:
Watch until about 2:39:00 when Speaker of the House John Boehner takes the podium and asks for a voice vote on the rules. The “nays” from the floor were at least as loud as the “yeas,” but Boehner approved the rules “without objection.”
What a joke.
Meanwhile, a North Dakota delegate texted me from the floor of the convention saying that they were instructed to chant “USA” (you can hear it during the video) to drown out the dissenters.
The tea party is often attacked by the progressive left. We know that the press and people like
Aaron Sorkin demonize us due to their ignorance. Higher ranking progressive fear us as the embodiment of America's individualist ideals. These blinded progressives are about to be confronted by the reality of the tea party.
Because tea party sentiment was conceived at the end of the Bush administration, a narrative of "racism" and anti-Obamaism was established by the statists. President Obama is worse than President Bush, but conservatives were horrified by the final months of the Bush administration. We had faith that a president who had brought 4%+ GDP growth for several years was knowledgeable enough to understand that bank bailouts and TARP was a bad idea. When that faith was betrayed, even by 2008 presidential candidate John McCain, new leaders emerged. Leaders like Indiana Rep. Mike Pence (R) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R) began to call for fiscal sanity.
President Obama took office and made matters worse. If he had listened to the voices of the tea party, he would have had a massively successful presidency. The president is a basketball fan, as am I. To put the issue in that vernacular, he should have played the presidency "inside-out." Shore up your "inside game", in this case domestic policy and support from grassroots groups. "Get other players involved" by passing the ball to the tea party on issues where we are wide open to score. After the "inside" game is strong, start passing "outside" for game-changing foreign policy shots with misses rebounded by the strong "inside" game.
Instead he hogged the ball. President Obama never broke down the defense. He left financial conservatives in the wings to "get cold." Every shot he took since has been contested and his misses have led to easy points for his opponents.
This analogy breaks down because the President has missed almost all of his shots. His only "three pointer" is the Bin Laden raid. Even in this, he wants full credit instead of acknowledging the American military. He has been a bad player for America. If this were actually basketball, he would have hit a better percentage or the coach would have pulled him from the game.
Back to reality:
Like many establishment Republicans, President Obama did not understand the credibility and power of the tea party. Many on the left are about to understand, because the grassroots tea party is about to take on the GOP establishment. We shall be the force that holds them accountable.
So much for the calls of racism and anti-Obamaism. Indisputable evidence will gather that the tea party is not against anyone, we are for America. We are Republican and Democrat. We are socially conservative and liberal. We
are America.
Gov. Mitt Romney is not a tea party candidate. Mitt has a business background and can throw rhetoric to the tea party. However, his actions and policies are too often top-down. RomneyCare is one example. His campaign's push for rules 12, 15 and 16 is a foreshadowing of trouble ahead.. This is their "pro-active" response to insulate President Romney from tea party backlash.
President Romney can side with us or against us. His decision will define his presidency. The question Mitt must answer is not whether we believe in him, but whether he believes in us.
It appears that the tea party will be President Romney's loyal opposition. There may be a short lull as many conservatives breath a sigh of relief to the end of an error. Personally, I had hoped that the lull would be several months but it appears we needed to be energized Tuesday as the convention rules were "Boehnered." The first shot has been fired upon us.
Was Paul Ryan duped?
The Paul Ryan pick for VP seems like an olive branch to the tea party. Rep. Ryan has been the leader of congressional calls for fiscal responsibility. After the events of the convention on Tuesday, it appears that Representative Ryan will be put on ice in the VP slot. Without Paul Ryan leading congress, the hard-won branch of government required to control spending is leaderless. A major force in credible leadership against massive spending has been removed from the equation.
Rep. Ryan will assist in winning the Oval Office. He adds gravitas in the policy discussion of the national budget. Paul Ryan shores up tea party grassroots support. Liberator Today comments upon the impressiveness of
Paul Ryan's Wednesday Speech from a tea party perspective:
The best line in his speech was about the so called Affordable Care Act:
Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country.
The way he emphasized the words free country got my attention. It is that freedom which is under assault, ...
If team Romney is looking ahead to see fight with the grassroots, the Paul Ryan pick is a triple-win for the GOP establishment. One of the fangs of tea party fiscal conservatism has been pulled.
It is time to ask for support from left-leaning Americans. Tea party supporters will prove to be motivated solely by the best intentions for America. In the coming months, the tea party has the opportunity to prove itself as the core of America. The core of an America which values both heart and mind and has traditionally found solution for liberals and conservatives.
It's the case that the tea party has better solutions for all Americans. Humanity is best when hearts and minds are focused upon the same task. Thus far, false accusations have kept many liberals hearts from our fold. It is time to appeal to the fiscally conservative and moderate liberals who love America as the land of opportunity. It is time to present solutions that will sooth fears about "
the end of upward social mobility." It is time for the media to clear it's vision, and present our solutions instead of their fears.
The people in the tea party have differing strengths. Some can explain the damage of illegal immigration, and others the folly of centralized planning. We only need a microphone or a camera. People will see that the tea party could easily be named the Party of Reagan or the Party of Americans. It is the future, if we keep working.
It is incumbent upon us to send a message to liberal Americans. "The tea party will be the ones holding the GOP's feet to the fire. The false narrative that the tea party is "racist" against President Obama is over. It is time to have a discussion about solutions. Working together we can create even better solutions. It is time for your support. Together we will take America back to prosperity."
